Friday, April 3, 2015

Explore the hotspots in this Thinglink.Your digital footprint is your digital history and although it goes along with internet safety it is not the same concept.Thinking about your digital footprint is recognizing that every time you go online you create a digital trail that will stay with you forever! Creating a positive digital history in the digital world should be treated the same as creating a positive history in the physical world and is an important lesson for students to learn. Check out this new and awesome resource from Common Sense Media:https://www.digitalcompass.org/If you are considering a digital project with your students (blogging, podcasts, movie or story creation) planning needs to be done. Perhaps the students will create an online project map as an outline that leads to a written script, or they will be searching online, or collaborating. Before you start the project consider adding a digital footprint activity. Share this video from Common Sense Media and ask this guiding question:“What online information do you want connected to your name in 10-15 years?” A Great Article on this hot topic will help with that discussion. http://www.teachhub.com/10-things-your-students-should-know-about-their-digital-footprints Still think you do not need to worry? Learn from these professionals at Reputation.com “self-reflect before you self-reveal”

What is Digital Learning? From the Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement and Florida’s Virtual School: “Digital Learning is learning facilitated by technology that gives students some element of control over time, place, path and/or pace."

There are many ways that you can incorporate digital resources into your classroom. It can be very overwhelming, so the idea is to take one step at a time and consider the technology that is in your building already. Some of the Teachers are trying things like Animoto, Kidblog, Twitter, and Google Classroom. Ask your colleagues what they are using.

Have the students use digital tools to develop their own learning in a classroom Genius Hour.

Try my personal favorites, Google Earth, and Google Maps to explore places related to the content students are learning about.

Start curating resources with these tools and create your own digitally enhanced lessons that your students can access using:

Youtube Edu - Upload youtube video’s for education to your own youtube channel by categories for each lesson.

Graphite.org - create a lesson “flow” of curated websites and apps by subject

emediaVA - free educational content searchable by VA SOL that can be “collected” in a folder for use by students.

Eduwidgets- developed in and for Virginia schools, this is an online authoring application that teachers and students can use to create interactive digital content for classroom devices, tablets, and the Web.

Educreations- video a favorite lesson and post it to share with others.

Once you have decided how you would like to celebrate Digital Learning day include your plan on the Digital Learning Day map.

Make digital learning an everyday occurrence in the classroom instead of just outside of it!

Monday, February 2, 2015

Exploring the Virginia State Capitol

Recently several representatives from New Kent County Public Schools traveled to Richmond to meet with the Governor's Secretary of Commerce and Trade (Mr. Maurice Jones) and the Governor’s Director of STEM (Dr. Megan Healy) to discuss the skills students need for the future workforce. The conversation centered around technology skills to meet the growing demand for a workforce that “needs to be comfortable working with robots” The visit was successful for the goal and for the learning that takes place when we are in interesting surroundings.

We did our research to prepare for the visit with Google, of course. The Governor of Virginia has a Cabinet, just like the President of the United States, and Secretary Jones is a member of that Cabinet. He advises the Governor onthe economic, community, and workforce development of Virginia. One of the Departments that Secretary Jones oversees is the

Virginia Employment Commision. Dr. Healy advises the Governor on both STEM jobs and STEM in education around the State. These offices are a part of the Executive branch of Virginia’s government.

The Virginia Capitol and Capitol Square are impressive places that are only 30 minutes from New Kent County. They are, however, not visible from the street.

We learn a lot of Virginia History in school but can you point out buildings and landmarks when you drive by them? Who works in those really old buildings and why are the people walking around dressed up? These are some questions young students might ask if you visit Richmond. Older students might ask, what are these old buildings and where is the Governor’s House?

Interesting Facts:

The capitol grounds are many government buildings on a hill bordered by Broad Street, 9th Street, Bank Street and 14th Streets. The Capitol Building is only visible from Bank Street. It was renovated in 2007 and has an entrance on the street that leads underground to the Capitol. It was designed by Thomas Jefferson and looks a little like the design of the White House in Washington, DC. The whole lawn on the Bank Street side of the Capitol building is a “green roof”. The huge fence that surrounds Capitol Square was set in granite stone in 1818. All of the buildings in the yellow boundary of the picture below are a part of Capitol Square. The Governor’s Mansion is only visible by walking the Capitol Grounds and is opposite the Patrick Henry Building which houses the offices of the Executive Branch of the State Government. The Governor can walk to work on this beautiful and historic ground. The ornate lobby in the huge Gothic style building known as the “Old City Hall Building” is open to the public.For safety reasons, all of the buildings are only accessible from inside Capitol Square.

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About Me

I grew up on Long Island, enjoying the water and NYC. I have done science research, legal research,taught science and now I am a technology resource teacher. I am passionate about learning, teaching, science (and yoga!)